Saturday, July 26, 2014

Summer Books - Round Two

The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey
Remembering that one of my favorite genres is post-apocalyptic fiction, my 'reading-partner-in-crime' loaned me this little gem; it did not disappoint, though it did provide a few surprises along the way.  As in all futuristic novels, the world pretty much sucks.  Thanks to a twisted little virus that has morphed into a world-wide destroyer, people who become infected turn into zombies.  Yep, that's right...zombies.  I, too, questioned this premise, thinking "Is this going to be  Twilight with a zombie hero?!" Thankfully, Carey is able to turn this novel into so much more than just a horror story, with a lovely assortment of intriguing characters.  The story begins at a school, set behind barbed wire, where the 'students' are strapped into chairs with muzzles over their faces before being wheeled into the classroom.  The main heroine of the story, Melanie, is a brilliant young girl who has no idea that she's one of the 'hungries'; unfortunately, she is introduced to that concept in some rather horrifying ways.  The rest of the crew comprises of a military officer in the mold of a Navy Seal-type, a stereotypical over-involved teacher, a research doctor determined to find the cause of the virus, and a young pup security guard who operates on fear mixed with compassion.  Each character, including Melanie, has deep levels of complexity, and Carey has no problem taking plot turns that are unexpected, as well as not always welcome.  It is a different, intriguing story, that occasionally leaves one with gruesome nightmares at night, but it is definitely a page-turner.

The Darlings by Cristina Alger
First off, bad title...seriously.  It makes me think of the owners in Lady and the Tramp, not the high-powered, NYC financiers that are actually the Darlings in the novel.  Alger needed better advice on her debut novel; however, it's a humdinger of a story so you just have to get past the title.  The whole story takes place in just a few days during the economic meltdown of 2007, interspersed with flashbacks to the bygone days of monetary largesse and family secrets.  The Darlings (think Madow family) are the 'It' people of New York society, with dad the head of a successful hedgefund, the wife a typical nipped and tucked sixty year old charity fundraiser, and two beautiful daughters, one a trophy wife and one the 'smart' one.  While it sounds like a soap opera, the plot develops into something so much more.  The son-in-law of 'smart daughter' stumbles onto and into an SEC investigation into a shady part of the family business.  As he gets pulled deeper into the machinations of this seemingly 'perfect' family, all the past secrets of the family begin to come to light and both the daughter and her husband have a few tough choices to make.  Alger, a graduate from NYU law school, definitely knows her way around both the legal world and the world of high finance so one ends up learning a substantial amount about this world; for a small-town high school English teacher like me, it was like a peek into another world - I mean, who really cares about the name of the designer of your dress or what boarding school you attended?  It's a quick read, which I appreciated after a few 400 page books, and a tightly woven plot with a team of sympathetic, complex, detestable at times, characters.

The Most Dangerous Animal of All by Gary Stewart and Susan Mustafa
This is the perfect book for a reader who enjoys a good mystery, is curious about 'how' all those creepy serial killers are made, and appreciates some well-done research.  A memoir that begins as a search for his adoptive father, Gary Stewart unfolds the tale of his search for his family roots and the dark underworld of San Francisco during the time of the Zodiac killer.  The first half of his story focuses mainly on his very young birth mother and the news-worthy time spent with Gary's biological father, with the second half spent on his own adulthood and search for proof of his father's identity. Stewart, with the help of true-crime writer Mustafa, does a superior job of researching all the old new stories, not only of the mother's 'kidnapping' and time in New Orleans with her older lover, but also of the police search and frustration for the brilliant, sadistic, mysterious killer who leaves cryptic and encoded messages for the police, labeling himself as the Zodiac, but also embedding his real name into the unbreakable codes.  Still labeled as 'unsolved' and 'unfound' as to the murderer's identify, Stewart makes a compelling argument that his birth father was indeed the infamous killer.  While I would not say this book is poetically written, I would argue true-crime is not supposed to be.  What it is supposed to do is tell a compelling, fact-rich story that forces you to stay up late at night and turn pages like an addict; in this case, The Most Dangerous Animal of All satisfies with a bang.


Silenced
and The Disappeared by Kristina Ohlsson
Another fabulous Scandinavian writer, Ohlsson is back with two more in her series that began with Unwanted (see previous post).  Similar to Jo Nesbo with his Harry Hole series, it really isn't necessary to read earlier books as each book stands alone.  If you like a well-written mystery with intriguing characters and a plot line that keeps you guessing til the last chapter, you should definitely check out Ohlsson.  Her crew of police investigators are a quirky bunch: Frederika, the investigator who isn't actually police but is grudgingly accepted by the detectives because she always seems to be right; Alex, the head of the special unit investigating creepy murders, who has issues at home; Peder, the sexually harassing, alcoholic, cheating husband, good brother detective who, underneath all his foibles, is actually quite an instinctual policeman.  Silenced deals with a rape from long ago that comes back to haunt the family who tried so hard to ignore it ever happened.  This book deals with illegal immigration, PTSD, and numerous personal issues that affect all the detectives.  The Disappeared begins with a grave found containing a girl missing from two years previously, a dark and creepy children's novelist who hasn't spoken in thirty years, and Frederika's own lover involved in the whole ugly mess.  Both these books are serious page-turners, with Kristina Ohlsson continuing the trend of the Scandinavian mystery writers like Nesbo and Adler-Olson to, in my opinion, write darker, more sinister thrillers than their American counterparts.

Summer House with Swimming Pool by Herman Koch
This is the latest book by Koch after his huge best-seller, The Dinner.  If you read Dinner, you remember that Koch takes the typically negative and normal character flaws in humanity, and enlarges, warps, and entwines them in his characters until the detestable human beings are completely exposed.  Yes, these are books you want to take a shower after reading, but they are also books that make you think.  I am always skeptical when a big-hit author comes out with another book so quickly after the first novel hits big; I may be right on this one.  I was very intrigued by Summer House, with its nasty characters and twisted plot-line, but I do think it misses the brilliance of Dinner.  The premise deals with a perfect little family: the family doctor, his gorgeous wife, and the equally gorgeous daughters.  They get pulled into a vacation with a famous movie star, thanks to the doctor's creepy sideline business of dispensing drugs haphazardly to whoever famous walks in the door, and from this, chaos and nastiness ensues.  I felt like the beginning was a bit slow, but the insidious behavior from some of the main characters was surprising and intriguing.  This would be a good book club book as it's ripe for conversation, but no, it doesn't quite live up to The Dinner, in my opinion.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

WOW - lots of summer reading!

Delicious by Ruth Reichle
I am a self-proclaimed 'non-foodie,' which I know is not the cool thing these days.  All my friends seem to be into food books, food shows, new ingredients, new trends, etc.  I, admittedly, eat the exact same thing for breakfast, every day, for the last ten years, and yes, I have a pb&j sandwich every day at work.  Thus, I wondered if this book by an acclaimed food critic would be my 'thing?'  However, Reighle's first foray into fiction was definitely delectable (okay - I admit - I just couldn't ignore all the wonderful stupid food puns that were available!).  The premise of the story is a twenty-something year old girl, Billie, who quits college and comes to New York to apply to be an executive assistant to the editor of the country's most prestigious food magazine.  Reichle peoples the book with some delightfully eccentric characters - the photographer, the travel writer, the bitchy ex-girlfriend, and the editor himself - as well as the side story of the delightful little Italian grocer.  As the magazine is inexplicably closed, the job transitions and our girl discovers a beautiful trail of letters between a young girl during WWII and the famous James Beard, and we also start to unravel the back story of Wilhelmina herself.   Reichle is able to juggle all the story lines quite well and winds up with what I would call a 'delightful' book (okay, I wanted to say 'delicious' but I withheld:) Fun summer read!

The Pearl that Broke its Shell by Nadia Hashimi
I have not seen this book on any bookstore shelves, and what a tragedy that is.  I discovered this debut novel by looking at books I have loved, and scrolling through the line on Amazon to see what else people bought who liked that same book. I have a soft spot for debuts - I always feel like an author's most honest voice comes through when she first begins, and this one is just a beautifully told story.  Hashimi weaves together two stories, one of Afghanistan from the turn of the century, as Kabul is ruled by a king whose harem needs guarding, a damaged young girl trying to sustain herself in a male-centric society, and the people who both help and hinder her...and the story of the harem guard's great-great-granddaughter in modern day Afghanistan, who lives her life as a boy prior to a forced marriage to a warlord and subsequent birth of 'democracy' in her country.  It is a fascinating look at where Afghanistan used to be, the journey it is taking now, and the subjugation of women at the core of their cultural beliefs.  Sometimes painful to read, always powerful, and beautifully written, I cannot recommend this book enough - I hope bookstores and other people discover it soon - it is a jewel.

The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison
So, if you liked The Dinner or Indiscretion (both great books-see old posts), which were peopled with fairly despicable people but so fascinating, you'll like this one.  The story begins with a fairly 'normal' marriage between a psychologist and a land-management wheeler/dealer; they live in a beautiful Boston apartment where the wife cooks perfect meals, walks the dog each day, and climbs into bed each night in her pressed and ironed pajamas.  In others words...nothing is 'normal!'  As the story delves deeper into each spouse, we see the complete inhumanity in each, as the wife comes up with all sorts of interesting revenge tricks to punish dear old hubby for cheating.  The marriage crumbles, murder ensues, and all sorts of intriguing twists and turns bring us to the culminating event.  Read in 24 hours, I wanted to take a shower afterwards, as very little is present in either character that is worthwhile or lovely, but it's like rubbernecking at a particularly horrid accident; you know you should look away, but you just can't - this book feels the same.  Wicked good story and well told by Harrison - great summer read.

The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
I think I've seen this book listed on 'must reads' for well over a year; typical of my reverse-psychology self, I refused to read it if everyone else was - plus, the title sounded like a Boxcar children book, quite honestly.  I finally jumped in when I needed to pile my Kindle full of books before leaving the country, and I am very glad I did.  As a historical fiction junkie, this book was a nice change from the nastiness of the previous book reviewed and a good change of pace from the fantasy of Game of Thrones.  Kline tells two stories that take place some eighty years apart, but with eerie similarities.  For many, many years, orphaned children in New York City were shipped out to the midwest and adopted by families for a variety of reasons, some because they had lost children, others because they needed free labor.  Kline tells the story of one such young girl, and then juxtaposes it with the story of a foster child of today, who does a school research project on the famous orphan trains from long ago.  I found the historical information quite fascinating, the characters interesting, and the ending satisfactory. Was it predictable at times?  Yes...but honestly, I didn't care - it was just a really good story.

The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh
I also needed just a good old-fashioned mystery while on the beach, and this book gave me some of my favorite components - a snarly villain, a likable protagonist, and even some good 'ole Southern shenanigans in the middle of the Ozark mountains.  McHugh tells the story from a variety of first person perspectives, beginning with the story of Lucy, her murdered friend, and her mother who has been missing for sixteen years.  We see the story from years ago, as well as the different twists from the characters still around today.  Lucy has a loving, yet absent father, a best friend with questionable morals, a boyfriend whose mother is a psychic, and a fairly creepy uncle.  The story deals with some fairly topical issues, such as our foster care system, kids with special needs and the bullying they endure, as well as human trafficking in the American South, which has become endemic.  This is a solid mystery, a quick read, and just another good story.



The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
This too had sat on my Kindle for over a year, no idea why except that other books came along that grabbed me more.  However, this is just a really, really good read - great summer beach book.  A host of different characters people this book - a young mom who moves back to Sydney when her husband and her cousin/best friend tell her they're in love, the perfect PTA mom with four perfect girls with a not-so-perfect husband, the mother who's daughter was murdered twenty years ago who still grieves, the questionable physical education teacher - and Moriarty weaves the story quite seamlessly, pulling everyone and all situations together in the end.  She's quite a good storyteller - I wouldn't say it's 'pretty' writing but it's definitely a page turner.  I think this one took me, maybe, two days - great vacation book and wouldn't be a bad book club book either, as many complex issues are mulled over.



Game of Thrones etc...by George R.R. Martin
Yes, I have 'drunk the kool-aid', 'followed the lemings,' 'jumped on the bandwagon,' - and every other bad cliche.  However...quite honestly, these books are worth it, and that's coming from a person who typically says "I don't like fantasy."  Of course, by that I mean Tolkien (not a fan - sorry).  Harry Potter, Narnia, Oz, - those magical books I love - but Martin and his dragons always seemed to be more in line with hobbits, elves, and wizards.  Plus, they're viciously long so I have avoided them for years.  Enter...the HBS series and my obsession with it.  So the question is, why read the books?  Here's a few reasons:  1). if you love the television show, the books gives you far more details and things you will never find out from the shows + you can get ahead of the show and threaten your friends with giving plot twists away 2). Martin is a spectacular story writer - he is able to juggle about a million plot ideas, and do it exceptionally well, while at the same time telling the story from dozens of different perspectives and never confusing the reader and 3). if you like complex characters, this is definitely the series for you.  Martin creates characters who on first observation are incredibly evil and unsalvageable, yet in another chapter he gives them a scrap of humanity that makes you wonder if your first assessment is correct.  In other words, he creates real humans and he forces you to become wickedly invested in their lives.  He tells an obsessively good story.  If you need a couple long books to keep you occupied on long train or plane rides, or a good beach read, these books will not let you down.